TELEGRAM TO F. I. KOLESOV

Written:Written on August 23, 1918Published:First published in 1942 inLenin Miscellany XXXIV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      pages140c-141a.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

KolesovTashkent

Weknow little about the Caucasus and Baku.
Information is unverified. Soviet power exists in the Northern
Caucasus. Its troops are cut off from Tsaritsyn, which is
besieged from the south by the Cossacks. The British have
landed in Baku and the situation there is unstable. The
Germans have agreed to guarantee there will be no offensive
against Baku if we drive out the British from there. Howmatters will turn out there is not known. As regards the
military aid, we do not know where it is. We think it is held
up near
Tsaritsyn.[1]

Asregards ambassadors and consuls, we advise a waiting
attitude, keeping them under threefold surveillance and
arresting suspicious individuals who are in contact with
them.

Weare considering and preparing some assistance for
you, but cannot promise anything for certain, for
everything depends on whether we shall be successful in driving
the British out of Baku or whether they succeed in capturing
a part of the Caspian coast.

[1]Seethis volume, Document 131.—Ed.